SARLAHI, Oct 6: The education of children in Sarlahi has been thrown into uncertainty after dozens of schools in Balara Municipality and Ramnagar Rural Municipality were inundated by last week’s heavy rainfall. It is not certain whether more than two dozen schools will start to operate even after the end of the Dashain festival.
According to the Mayor of Balara Municipality Ramashankar Prasad Kushwaha, up to five feet of water has accumulated in various schools of Ward number 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the municipality. He informed Republica that various educational materials including carpets and mats laid for the children were completely destroyed due to water stagnation in the classrooms of the inundated schools.
Dozens of houses inundated in Nepalgunj
Janga Bahadur Sahni, the principal of a primary school located in Balara Municipality-1, Sedhawa, told Republica that the situation of the school is such that there will be no teaching in the school for months. According to a local, Binay Yadav, the road leading to the school was swept away by a flood and the furniture, drawers, books and stationery inside the school were submerged in water for several days.
Mayor Kushwaha stated that 18 schools in the municipality are completely submerged in water and there is a need to manage seating locations for children of those schools. According to Kushwaha, the municipality is collecting details of the damage to the school.
Similarly, flood has caused damage in all the wards of Ramnagar Rural Municipality. Chairman of the rural municipality Rajababu Yadav informed Republica that he is worried that the children will drop out of schools due to the extensive damage to the schools. He said that there is no road access to nine schools in the rural municipality and that the rural municipality is attempting to bring roads into operation during the Dashain holiday to at least reach the schools.
Most of the primary schools in both the municipalities have seen extensive damage due to floods induced by heavy rainfall. Schools attended by the poor, and the marginalized Dalit communities have suffered the most damage and it is believed that a lot of time and money will have to be spent to restore the schools.
